Shadows
by cmww
Summary: A new case bring Emily back to a place that she would rather leave in her past. Who will be there to help her deal with the old emotions that are now being brought to the surface? Is the team in more danger than they think?


Emily Prentiss had never thought that she would actually be yearning for a case but that was how bored she was. Being at the BAU for two years she usually she loved it when the team had down time. She was out of the office by five every night and wasn't stressed out about trying to take down a serial killer. Their last case had been really rough and they had been across the country in Seattle, Washington for almost two weeks. Being off rotation was supposed to be a reward, a break even. But it sure wasn't feeling that way anymore.

After a week and a half of strictly paperwork she was really beginning to think that she might lose it. Emily wasn't alone in that thought though, she could see Morgan fidgeting out of the corner of her eye. He was always the worst when they had desk duty but the prolonged paperwork was really starting to get to him this time.

A wad of paper hitting her head pulled her out of her thoughts. "Hey!" she exclaimed, turning toward the culprit. "What do you think you're doing?"

Derek didn't even look up, instead he had the audacity to pretend he was deeply interested in his files. Emily rolled her eyes and went back to trying to concentrate on her own pile of folders. She was rereading the first line of a new file for the fifth time when she was assaulted with paper again.

"I'm serious," she said, slamming the folder shut. "Stop it! What are you five?"

At this Reid started laughing. "Don't encourage him!" she yelped and threw her own crushed up ball of paper at the young genius.

"I didn't even do anything!" He exclaimed. At this outburst, Derek couldn't hold back his laughter anymore and completely lost it.

Just as Emily was about to retaliate against him someone cleared their throat behind her. "Now children," a voice interrupted their antics, "I think we have a killer to catch so we should probably put on our big kid pants and stop throwing things at each other. We'll be briefing in five."

Emily watched JJ walk away and almost felt embarrassed. It was the third time that week had been scolded by either her or Hotch. She couldn't help but blame the paperwork.

She grabbed a fresh cup of coffee before taking the last seat left at the table. She was starting to feel a little guilty that she was actually excited about someone killing and probably torturing innocent people. She just squashed that thought down and focused on trying not to look too eager.

"There are three victims dead so far," JJ said as pictures started to appear on the screen. "And there is one more girl missing. All of them are college students but they don't attend the same school. The only connection they have so far is location. They were all spending the summer on Martha's Vineyard."

If there was one place that Emily would never want to go back to it was there but it wasn't like where they went was up to her. She had wanted a case after all. Who was she to complain about the location? Besides, it's not like they would pass up the case just because she didn't like where they were going.

"When did they find the bodies?" Rossi asked.

JJ looked through her notes and then pulled out autopsy photos. "Well, it seems like they were found within twenty four hours of dying. Each girl was held for a little over a week it seems. The last girl, Amanda Sears, has only been missing for a day and a half but we are treating it as if she's been taken."

"Sexual assault?" Emily asked, flipping through the files on her tablet. The girls had all been beaten pretty badly and she shuddered at the marks around their left wrists. They had been cuffed to something.

JJ shook her head. "Doesn't look that way. They were pretty banged up before he killed them though. They all died the same way, a single cut to the throat. Looks like a large knife was used."

Emily glanced through the pictures as the others continued to discuss the case. There was something familiar about them but she couldn't place what. He didn't seem to have a type, two blondes, a redhead, and the missing girl was a brunette. Their skin tone ranged from medium tan to as pale as she was.

"Hear that Princess?" Derek asked. Emily looked up to see that everyone was gathering their stuff up to head to the airport.

"Hear what?" She asked.

"We finally have a case!"

Emily rolled her eyes again. "Yeah, I know. Three girls were murdered, you don't have to sound so happy about it."

The venom in her own voice surprised her. She had been as excited for the case as he was just a half hour ago. Perhaps she was just cranky because of where they were being sent. Martha's Vineyard was chalk full of bad memories for her. Still, she needed to at least try and take it easy on Morgan. He was only happy because he was over being chained to a desk.

Seeing the hurt look on his face she mumbled an apology before going to make sure that her go bag was all set.

The plane ride wasn't that long and Emily had took a seat in the back by herself. She needed to adjust her attitude if she wanted to still have friends after the case was over. She went over the files again to try and find more connections between the victims but she couldn't find any. She felt bad for the girls. They were so young and had only been on vacation for the summer. If they had decided on a different place to go they would probably still be alive today.

It was past eight when they finally landed. They didn't have time to go and talk to any witnesses and they figured it would be best to get a fresh start tomorrow. They checked into their hotel and Emily was starting to get some of her stuff ready for the next day when there was a knock on her door.

She peeked through the peephole and smiled when she recognized who was standing in front of her room. "What's up?" She asked as she swung the door open.

"I wanted to see if you wanted to grab a bite to eat and check out the place," Derek answered. "I've never been here before and it's still warm out. I saw a ton of shops outside so we can probably just walk somewhere."

Emily thought about it for a minute. She really had no desire to wander around the island but she was hungry. The place they were staying was more of a motel than a hotel so it wasn't likely that they had room service. "Alright," she agreed. "But we aren't staying out long. I'm sure that Hotch wants us to star early tomorrow."

At his nod she grabbed a sweater before they headed out. They decided to eat at the first place they saw. Emily was happy that it was actually somewhere she had never been before.

"So, Princess," Derek said as they took their seats. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

Derek gave her a look. She knew it was out of concern but she also knew that she was going to get annoyed by this line of questioning soon. "You've been in a bad mood since we found out we had this case so don't play dumb," he told her. "I know that sometimes you just seem to wake up on the wrong side of the bed but this seems different. So why don't you just tell me what's got you all out of sorts."

"Look," she tried, "I just don't like it here. I used to come a lot when I was younger and there are just some bad memories tied to this place."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Emily really did not want to have this conversation but at this point it didn't look like it could be avoided. God, she just wanted to forget that she had ever even been here before and now that she'd admitted what she had Derek would never drop it. "I really just don't want to talk about it. Everything that happened here took place a long time ago."

"Everything that happened here?" He questioned. God, she should have chosen a better way to say it. Now he definitely had a look of concern about him.

"It's really not that big of a deal," she tried to downplay everything. "Just some problems with my Ex. We broke up after a lousy summer here."

At this Derek actually laughed. "You had me worried there for a second, Princess. Ex-boyfriend problems though? That I can deal with."

She sighed again. "No, not ex-boyfriend problems," she said, her eyes on her hands. "More like ex-husband problems."

"What?" Derek exclaimed. "You were married?"

"Briefly."

"How long ago?"

Emily caught the look of hurt on his face. She knew that the team didn't share everything with each other but she and Derek were close. They were more than just colleagues, they were friends. That's why she could see how he might have assumed that she would have brought up being married before. It honestly just wasn't something she wanted to talk about or think about ever again. "A long time ago," she answered after a pause. "I was young and stupid. I hadn't even finished college yet by the time we divorced."

Derek sat silently for a couple of minutes. "Why didn't you ever mention him before? I mean being married is a pretty big deal."

Emily shrugged. "It was a messy separation," she admitted. "I mean, we were both well off and he wanted to try and work things out. I didn't so I left and he was pretty angry about it. It was one of the only times in my life that I'm thankful for my mother. She didn't approve of our relationship from the beginning but when I went to her she never said I told you so. She just got me a fantastic lawyer."

"Where you guys okay before you came to Martha's Vineyard?"

"I don't think so," Emily tried to explain the situation. "It wasn't until we were here that I realized that Jamie wasn't who I thought he was. I guess I just always saw the best of him until that summer."

Derek stared at her before asking, "What do you mean?"

"I don't know," she said. "It was a long time ago and I was naive enough to just see the good in people instead of really seeing who they were."

Emily didn't think she had been more thankful for the waitress to bring over food in her life. She was so done with this conversation and even talking about Jamie for a few minutes had made her tired. There was a reason that she pushed things to the back of her mind and tried to forget about them.

Derek seemed to sense that she wasn't going to say any more on the subject. "What do you think of this case?" He asked. "These girls must have crossed paths with this guy here. Do you think he lives here or on the mainland?"

"I'm really not sure. It's not like it would be very hard to take them back and forth," she pointed out. "All he would have to do is drug them and put them in his car. The ferry doesn't check trunks or anything."

The continued to discuss the case while they ate, leaving Emily's past alone. She had been so grateful for a break in the paperwork but now she just couldn't wait for this whole thing to be over. She wanted to go home to her own bed and try to forget this place and the memories that it brought to the surface.


End file.
